Singapore and International Civil Aviation
Singapore is a tiny island. No natural resources. No hinterland. But somehow it built one of the biggest aviation hubs on the planet. Chapter 17 explains how that happened, and how the UN’s aviation agency played a big role in it.
This is part of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).
This chapter is written by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). It is not credited to a single author. It reads like an institutional piece. But do not let that put you off. The story is actually pretty impressive. It is the story of how a small country went from receiving training help to becoming one of the world’s top trainers in aviation.
Why Aviation Matters So Much to Singapore
For most countries, aviation is one industry among many. For Singapore, it is survival. The chapter opens by saying aviation contributes about 6% of Singapore’s GDP directly. But it also enables trade, tourism, investment, and basically everything else that keeps the economy going.
Singapore is an island. It has no land borders. If planes stop flying, Singapore is cut off. That makes international civil aviation not just important but critical.
What Is ICAO?
ICAO stands for the International Civil Aviation Organization. It is a UN specialized agency. It was created near the end of World War II when 52 countries signed the Convention on International Civil Aviation in Chicago in 1944. The Chicago Convention, as everyone calls it, sets the rules for flights crossing borders. Safety standards. Security rules. Equal opportunity for all countries.
By the time of writing, ICAO had 191 member states. Singapore joined in 1966, one year after independence.
From Tiny Airport to Global Hub
Since joining ICAO, Singapore’s aviation sector grew massively. Changi Airport now handles over 54 million international passengers per year. That is just international, not domestic. About 1.8 million tons of airfreight pass through annually. Over 100 airlines operate there, connecting to some 300 cities around the world with about 6,500 weekly flights.
Singapore Airlines became one of the most respected airlines globally. And Singapore also runs the air navigation services for the Singapore Flight Information Region. That is a 245,000 square nautical mile area stretching into the South China Sea.
None of this happened by accident. It happened because Singapore worked within the ICAO system and used it to build something real.
Giving Back to the System
This is the part I find most interesting. Singapore did not just benefit from ICAO. It started contributing heavily.
Since 2003, Singapore has been a member of the ICAO Council. Since 2005, a Singapore expert has sat on the Air Navigation Commission. Ten officers from CAAS were seconded to the ICAO Secretariat at its headquarters and regional offices.
At the time of writing, Singapore participated in over 100 ICAO expert bodies. These cover everything: aviation safety, air traffic management, security, environmental protection, air law, air transport, and aviation medicine. Singapore chaired 17 of those bodies.
For a country that small, those numbers are remarkable.
The Liquid Explosives Problem
Here is a concrete example of Singapore solving a real problem at the global level.
In August 2006, there was a failed terrorist plot to use liquid explosives on transatlantic flights. Europe and the United States immediately banned passengers from carrying liquids, aerosols, and gels (LAGs) onto planes. Other countries followed with their own rules.
The result was chaos. Every country had different rules. Airlines, airports, security agencies, and retailers were all confused. Passengers were even more confused.
Singapore stepped in. They gathered a group of like-minded countries and industry players. Instead of chasing some perfect solution, they went for something practical. They developed a tamper-evident bag with a regulated supply chain process. Basically, a secure bag that airport shops could use for duty-free purchases so passengers could still buy their bottles at the airport.
Singapore presented this solution to the ICAO Council on behalf of the group. It was adopted. Those LAGs bags and supply chain rules? They are still in use today. Next time you buy duty-free at an airport and they seal it in a special bag, that comes from Singapore’s work at ICAO.
Fighting SARS Through Aviation Medicine
In 2003, SARS hit the Asia Pacific hard. Singapore was one of the affected countries.
Air passenger traffic dropped sharply. People were terrified of catching the disease on a plane. Airlines in the region had to cut flights dramatically. Singapore Airlines cut capacity by 70% during the worst month. Airlines across the Asia Pacific lost over $6 billion in revenue. Tourist arrivals to Singapore fell by more than two-thirds.
Singapore fought back. They put in strict control measures. They used improvised thermal scanners at Changi Airport to screen passengers for fever. CAAS worked with public health authorities to restore confidence.
But the bigger contribution came after SARS was contained. Singapore shared its experience with ICAO and together they created CAPSCA in 2006. That stands for the Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation. It is a long name for a simple idea: help countries prepare their aviation sectors for disease outbreaks.
Dr. Jarnail Singh, the head of Singapore’s Civil Aviation Medical Board, was seconded to ICAO to roll out the program. It started in the Asia Pacific and then expanded to Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East.
CAPSCA proved its worth. When H1N1 influenza, MERS, and Ebola hit, the program helped manage the spread of those diseases through air travel. Singapore built something that saved lives in other countries around the world.
Training the World’s Aviation Workers
This might be the best part of the chapter. The story of how Singapore built its aviation training program from literally nothing.
In 1958, Singapore created its own civil aviation training school. They set it up in an empty hangar. I am not making this up. The first flight simulator was a large wooden table with a runway and taxiways painted on it. Air traffic controllers pretended to be pilots and moved small aircraft models on sticks across the table. Trainee controllers sat in a glass room and gave instructions to the “pilots” over telephones.
That is beautiful. No budget. No fancy equipment. Just clever people making do with what they had.
Over the years, that improvised school became the Singapore Aviation Academy. The wooden table got replaced by three modern air traffic control simulators. But the chapter makes a point that one thing stayed the same: Singapore’s air traffic controllers remained deeply involved in developing the training methods and simulators.
The Academy grew into a globally recognized institution. By the time of writing, over 91,000 people from 200 countries had participated in its programs. More than 6,500 participants received fellowships from the Singapore Government, available since 1990. Some of these came from the Singapore-ICAO Developing Countries Training Programme, specifically designed for developing nations.
In 2000, the ICAO Council gave the Singapore Aviation Academy the Edward Warner Award. That is the highest recognition in international civil aviation. The citation praised the Academy for its “eminent contribution as a centre of excellence in international civil aviation training.”
In 2014, the Academy became one of the first four training centers in the world designated as an ICAO Regional Training Centre of Excellence.
From a wooden table in an empty hangar to the highest award in international aviation. That is one of the better underdog stories you will find in this book.
The Singapore Pattern
This chapter fits perfectly into a pattern we have seen throughout the book. Singapore joins an international organization. It benefits from the system. It builds capacity. And then it starts contributing back, often at a level way beyond what you would expect from a country its size.
With ICAO, Singapore went from receiving UNDP training assistance to becoming one of the world’s premier aviation training providers. From joining as a small new member in 1966 to chairing 17 expert bodies and sitting on the ICAO Council.
Lee Kuan Yew is quoted in the chapter saying “Talent is a country’s most precious asset, more so for a small resource-poor country like Singapore.” The aviation story proves that point perfectly. Singapore had no oil, no minerals, no vast farmland. It had people. And it invested in those people relentlessly.
My Take
This chapter is more institutional than personal. It does not have the individual voice of some earlier chapters. But the facts speak loudly enough on their own.
What I find most striking is the practical nature of Singapore’s contributions. They did not just sit on committees and talk. They solved the liquid explosives problem for airports worldwide. They built a pandemic preparedness program that expanded to every continent. They trained 91,000 aviation workers from 200 countries.
The wooden table simulator story is the perfect example of Singapore’s approach. You do not wait for perfect conditions. You build what you can with what you have. And then you keep improving it until it becomes world class.
Aviation connects Singapore to the world. And through ICAO, Singapore has helped connect the rest of the world too. For a country that could fit inside many international airports, that is not a bad track record.
About the Author
This chapter is written by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), a Statutory Board under the Ministry of Transport. CAAS oversees the growth of Singapore’s air hub, aviation safety, air navigation services, and the development of aviation training and human resources. It manages Singapore’s cooperation with ICAO, including representation on the ICAO Council and Air Navigation Commission, and participation in over 100 ICAO expert bodies and working groups.
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